Israel's home demolitions fail to deter violence
Local and international human rights groups have criticized Israel’s policy of demolishing Palestinian homes as a war crime and collective punishment.
JERUSALEM — “This was the kitchen, over here was my daughter’s room, and this was the room Muataz used to share with his brother,” Shadyaa Hijazi said, as we stand in her emptied family home in Abu Tor, East Jerusalem. The Hijazis were issued a demolition order on Nov. 19 and moved all their belongings and furniture to another apartment in the same building, owned by their extended family. Two decorative streamers hanging from the ceiling in one of the bedrooms look odd in the otherwise empty space.
A month ago, Muataz Hijazi was accused of the attempted murder of right-wing activist Yehuda Glick. A few hours later, he was shot dead by police on the roof of his home. The family has always denied he was responsible for the attack. “Even if he was, they should have proved it in court. Instead, they shot him 20 times,” Ibrahim Hijazi, his father, said in an interview with Al-Monitor. Muataz had spent 11½ years in prison for arson and for attacking a prison guard, with long spells in solitary confinement.
The demolition order came a day after a synagogue attack in the West Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof had left five Israelis and two Palestinian assailants dead. In an address to the public, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the demolition of the homes of those responsible for this and other recent attacks. Three families were issued demolition orders, and the family home of Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, responsible for a car attack in which a woman and a three-month-old baby were killed, was demolished on the night of Nov. 19 in Silwan, East Jerusalem.
The families are given 48 hours to appeal to the regional command of the Israel Defence Forces and another 48 hours to take it to Israel’s Supreme Court, should the former be rejected. But Ibrahim has little faith in the appeal process.
